OFF LINE PENDING FIXES to SURVEY - Your opportunity to tell us about Parental Alienation

Fellow readers we have a unique opportunity to participate in updating a study on parental alienation experiences.

You are invited to participate in the study examining how parents experience alienation from their child, which is encouraged by an ex-partner. This research is being conducted as a partial fulfillment of a Master of Clinical Psychology degree for Sian Balmer under the supervision of Mandy Matthewson and Kimberly Norris at the UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA | Faculty of Health.

The data used for the purpose of Siam's Clinical Psychology Masters thesis has started to be analysed as of last week, however, Siam has left the survey open with the hope of continuing to increase the number of respondents to use that data for future publications hopefully. So the survey is still currently active and will continue to be until November.

What is it? The Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is the systematic denigration by one parent by the other with the intent of alienating the child against the other parent. The purpose of the alienation is usually to gain or retain custody without the involvement of the father. The alienation usually extends to the father's family and friends as well.

Take the new survey now or read on The Survey is being re worked and will be re-published

Dr. Richard Gardner in his book 'The Parental Alienation Syndrome at page 74 said

Many of these children proudly state that their decision to reject their fathers is their own. They deny any contribution from their mothers. And the mothers often support this vehemently.

In fact, the mothers will often state that they want the child to visit with the father and recognise the importance of such involvement, yet such a mother's every act indicates otherwise.

Such children appreciate that, by stating the decision is their own, they assuage mothers guilt and protect her from criticism.

Such professions of independent thinking are supported by the mother who will often praise these children for being the kind of people who have minds of their own and are forthright and brave enough to express overtly their opinions.

Frequently, such mothers will exhort their children to tell them the truth regarding whether or not they really want to see their fathers. The child will usually appreciate that "the truth" is the profession that they hate the father and do not want to see him ever again. They thereby provide that answer - couched as "the truth" - which will protect them from their mother's anger if they were to state what they really wanted to do, which is to see their fathers.

It is important for the reader to appreciate that after a period of programming the child may not know what is the truth any more and come to actually believe that the father deserves the vilification being directed against him. The end point of the brainwashing process has then been achieved.

You are invited to participate in a study examining how parents experience alienation from their child, which is encouraged by an ex-partner. This research is being conducted as a partial fulfillment of a Master of Clinical Psychology degree for Sian Balmer under the supervision of Mandy Matthewson and Kimberly Norris.

Welcome to our study! We are investigating the experience of parental alienation from the perspective of targeted parents, and we are also interested in exploring the characteristics of targeted parents. The following is some important information that we need you to read and understand before you can continue to the survey.

Information for Participants

1. Invitation

You are invited to participate in a study examining how parents experience alienation from their child, which is encouraged by an ex-partner. This research is being conducted as a partial fulfillment of a Master of Clinical Psychology degree for Sian Balmer under the supervision of Mandy Matthewson and Kimberly Norris.

2. What is the purpose of this study?

The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics and experiences of parental alienation from the perspective of the parent who is alienated from their child.

3. Why have I been invited to participate?

You have been invited to participate in this study because our research targets are parents aged between 18 to 60 years in the general population, who are currently alienated from one of their biological children. It is important to acknowledge that your participation is voluntary, whilst we would appreciate your involvement, we respect your right to decline and this decision will have no consequences. Additionally, if you decide to withdraw your consent to participate at any stage during the study, you may do so without providing an explanation. Your information with be kept completely confidential, you will be identified by a unique code, and no names will be used in the publication of this research. All information will be kept in a locked storage compartment and a secure computer file.

4. What will I be asked to do?

The research will take place online via Limesurvey. By submitting the survey after completion, you are indicating your consent to participate in this study. The survey will involve a series of questions with scales ranging from 0 = strongly agree to 4= strongly disagree, or 0 = never to 4 = always. Here is an example statement: ‘In the last month, have you experienced interference with time spent with your child?’. This process should take approximately 1 hour.

5. Are there any possible benefits from participation in this study?

If you participate in this study you may gain a greater understanding of your own experiences of parental alienation and how you cope with this experience. The results of the study may have implications for the development of improved therapeutic assistance for people struggling with similar alienated relationships.

6. Are there any possible risks from participation in this study?

There are no specific risks associated with participating in this study. However, if you do become concerned or stressed while completing the survey, you can contact the Chief Investigator who will provide you with information about free counselling services that may assist you or you can contact the free counselling services listed below:

Family Relationships Advice Line - Ph: 1800 050 321

Lifeline (Crisis Counselling) - Ph: 13 11 14

Family Violence Counselling and Support - Ph: 1800 608 122

Beyond Blue - Ph: 1300 22 4636

7. What if I change my mind during or after the study?

You are free to withdraw from this study at any time, and if you decide to do so, you may without providing an explanation. Although, if you have completed the study you are unable to withdraw your data as it has been collected anonymously.

8. What will happen to the information when this study is over?

The data from this study will be stored in a School of Psychology locked storage compartment and a secure computer database. The data will be destroyed five years after the publication of the thesis via secure document disposal and deletion of files (November 2019). The data will be kept in a confidential manner and only the researchers involved in this study will have access to this data.

9. How will the results of the study be published?

This study following completion will be accessible on the University of Tasmania website (www.utas.edu.au), and will be produced as a Masters thesis.

“This study has been approved by the Tasmanian Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee. If you have concerns or complaints about the conduct of this study, please contact the Executive Officer of the HREC (Tasmania) Network on (03) 6226 7479 or email human.ethics@utas.edu.au. The Executive Officer is the person nominated to receive complaints from research participants. Please quote ethics reference number [H14391].”

The questionnaire you are about to begin has a wide range of questions in which you will be asked to answer all of them. We ask that you please answer each question as best you can, and that you do not dwell on any question for too long. At the end of the survey you will have the chance to provide any additional information you think will help us to understand parental alienation better. We ask that you do not provide any identifying information in this section. Further, if you do identify any perpetrator of an illegal act the researchers are bound by law to report this information to the appropriate authorities.

Before you begin, we would like to just explain a few terms that will be used throughout the survey, which you will need to understand to answer some of the questions.

Target parent = this should be you, as it describes the parent who is currently isolated from their child.

Target child = is the child who you choose to report about in this survey, and you must currently be isolated from this child.

Alienating parent = this is the target child's other parent, who is actively making it difficult for you to have a relationship with your child, who you share together. You should have previously been in a relationship with this parent at some stage of your child's life.

Please feel free to clarify any information by contacting the researcher before you start this survey if you need to. Thank you again for your interest!

Please click 'Take the survey' to begin… You can save it and come back later if partially completed. By submitting your completed answers on the survey you are indicating your consent to participate in the research.